7 charged over jail drug deaths
The two top officials at the Athens Korydallos Prison’s women’s wing were charged yesterday with dereliction of duty following the New Year’s Eve death of three female inmates after a drug and alcohol binge in their cell. Another five people, including three inmates, were also charged with providing the victims with the heroin and anti-depressant pills used in the party. The prison governor, Elisavet Sarilava, and her deputy, Rena Kassassi, took no action to prevent Argentinean national Dora Carmen Villaba from smuggling drugs into Korydallos despite being aware of her activities, according to Piraeus prosecutor Grigoris Peponis. Peponis charged Villaba – who allegedly passed the drugs to her imprisoned daughter, Sophia Maria Bakea – and Bakea’s boyfriend, Dimitris Penias, with manslaughter and drug-smuggling. Bakea and fellow-inmates Marianthi Patseli and Olga Delanikova were charged with manslaughter and drug-dealing for allegedly selling the narcotics to the victims – who were all in pretrial detention.
